I’ve been belatedly reading Jeremiah Joyce’s 2021 book “Still Burning: Half a Century of Chicago, from the Streets to the Corridors of Power; A Memoir.” The former 19th Ward alderman and Southwest Side state senator is a conversational writer and speaks frankly about some very divisive times, particularly regarding race. (It can get cringey.)

Joyce is remembered now as a consummate insider, but he came up the hard way without regular party support. It wasn’t until he forged a bond with Richard M. Daley, the first Mayor Daley’s son, that he came into his own as a power broker.

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Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about was one of Joyce’s observations of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who died in office in 1976 during Joyce’s one and only aldermanic term.

“Over time,” Joyce wrote

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